The portal network in Deja was much better than any other city in Lycania. This was obvious, since there wasn't any city as important as Deja, with maybe the exception of Contingent. It was thanks to this extensive network of portals Ashton and Seven were able to get back to the guild within minutes.
At the same time, 'butchers' were immediately deployed under Finnely's instruction. Butchers were the people who were experts in dismantling rare night creature corpses with minimal wastage. But since their talents were quite unique, the price for their service was also high. That's why most of the low ranking adventurers preferred to dismantle on their own.
However, if the killed beast was rare, they would often inform the guild about it who would send in some in-house Butchers to do it for them. In such an event the adventurers were adequately compensated and they didn't even have to pay for the butchers. In other words, it was a win-win situation for everyone.
But this time it was different. Although the Gorillan was a rare species and was always in demand by researchers, it wasn't worth it to send in a bunch of butchers. But Finnely did so as he was an opportunist.
Firstly, using the butchers would make Ashton see him in favourable light which in turn would get him closer to the king. And finally... he did not want to offend the king by letting them know that appearance of the gorillan wasn't a coincidence. As it all happened because of not properly researching the quest before handing it to Ashton.
If the king got to know about it, he would not be pleased and although he wouldn't do anything to him directly as every worker under the guild was protected by the guild master herself. But Finnely knew how king Jonathan was infamous for making the lives of those who cross him without getting involved by himself... through using the Conundrum.
Since no one knew who were the members of the COnundrum, even the guild master would not be able to protect him if Jonathan decided to hold him accountable in case anything happened to Ashton.
He was pacing up and down in his room ever since he got to know about the gorillan. But even then he wasn't worried all that much because a royal knight was with Ashton... that was until he heard the female archer say that it wasn't the royal knight facing the beast, but Ashton.
He was worried about Ashton's safety as it was directly linked to his. After all, that was what the king had written in the recommendation letter he sent along with the knight.
A moment later Finnely heard a knock on the door and rushed to open it immediately. His heart wasn't pounding or anything, but it was beating faster than it used to. Especially after he saw Ashton drenched in blood.
Thankfully, it didn't seem like he was injured or something. The same went for the knight accompanying him. A couple of moments passed and Finnely realised how weird his slacked jaw must be looking for the two of them and immediately regained his stoic demeanour.
"It's good to see both of you unharmed." he smiled before inviting them inside his office, "Would you like to have a drink or something?"
Seven was a bit thirsty and would love to drink some wine or beer to calm his nerves at the same time. But Ashton beat him to it and ordered some water. Seven threw Ashton a pleading look but Ashton completely ignored him.
After everyone got settled down, Finnely began talking once again.
"Firstly, I would like to apologise for the incompetence from the Guild's side. I have already launched an inquiry to punish everyone who was involved in the debriefing of the dungeon." Finnely breathlessly said, "On top of that, I am personally willing to compensate for the troubles you undoubtedly faced."
Ashton kept nodding every not and then as Finnely kept blabbering about things that were of no interest to him. He just wanted to get his reward and possibly to get to know what the guild would do now. But before he could start up with his enquiries, there were a couple of more things Finnely wanted to ask them.
"How did you manage to kill the gorillan?" However, to no one's surprise, he did not ask the question to Ashton but to Seven.
'This certainly makes things easier for me.' Ashton turned to face Seven and nodded.
Upon getting the 'signal', Seven started spouting bullshit about how he cornered the beast and killed him. Nonetheless, even though it was a made-up tale, the details of the events were extremely realistic. No 16-year-old kid went berserk and killed a being that was about 6 levels stronger than him.
***
A few minutes before...
Ashton had already notified Seven about his intentions of making him the hero of all this because he did not want the guild to start investigating him. But that's not what he told Seen to persuade him. Instead, he blackmailed him using his loyalty to the king.
As they were on their way back to the guild, Ashton figured out the reason why Seven was about to kill himself right before the gorillan and used it as a bargaining chip.
As long as he did as Ashton told him to, he would keep what actually happened during the quest a secret and if Seven refused, Ashton would inform the king about the royal knight's failure to protect him. It was a dirty move but it was what Ashton needed in order to keep his identity and class a secret.
Although Ashton didn't know whether his hunch was correct or not, he had a feeling his class was something the rest of them wouldn't believe even existed. If they did, they would try to get their hands on him to learn more about him and how the heck he got such a broken class.
After Ashton was done blackmailing Seven, the latter only had one question.
"Don't you want the fame? I mean, it would huge news. As far as I can remember, Gorillans are troublesome to deal with even if someone is at the same level as them and you killed it while being at a much lower level than him."
"Fame? No thanks. I don't like it when everyone's eyes are on me." Ashton sarcastically replied.
"Well, then you are doing a terrible job at it." Seven shook his head before knocking on the assistant manager's door.
***
Back in the present...
Seven was finally done portraying himself as the main character and since he was a level 30 High warrior, Finnely had no reason not to believe him. But deep down he was hoping all this was a lie and the kid was somehow the hero. He didn't know why he was having such absurd thoughts but it was what it was.
After his first question was answered, Finnely immediately followed it up with his final question.
"Did you manage to find the gorillan's mate?"
Seven shook his head along with Ashton and as they did, Finnely's expression turned gloomy. Ashton did not understand why, but Seven did. He was about to explain it to Ashton earlier but then everything happened so quickly that he couldn't. But Finnely was more than happy to do so.
"Gorillans are always found in pairs, a male and a female. They only have three purposes in their lives. To have as much sex as they can, to eat as much as they can to fuel their lust and sleep as much as they can to recover their lost energy."
He continued, "Since you found a male there, it's highly plausible there was a female in the vicinity as well considering they do not leave each other side for extended periods of time. However, since you killed the male... the female would be enraged and would definitely seek revenge."
Ashton immediately understood where Finnely was going with this. The female was going to become the new source of trouble for them. In other words... by killing the gorillan Ashton had released a whole new can of worms in the forest.
"You don't have to worry about a thing." Finnely reassured them, "We will send the best adventurers we can to hunt down the remaining gorillan. In fact, I should thank you for leaving something for us. That's all I needed from you two. You can leave now if you want and don't forget to claim your rewards from Mithila at the counter."
They got up and left, leaving Finnely alone with his thoughts. He was a bit troubled. The fact that there was another gorillan inside the forest was quite obvious, but if the queen was present there, she would have intervened in the battle and protected her mate.
Which led to three possibilities. One, that the gorillan was a widower and had no mate, or two, the Gorillan queen has more than one mate and thus did not care about the gorillan enough to save him. And third, she was somewhere far away and could not respond to her mate's cries for help.
The chances of the first and last scenario of happening were quite high. Whereas, considering the explosive growth in the number of monklins in the forest in comparison to the last decade, the second scenario of multiple partners appeared to be... true.
"I can just hope my fears are unfounded. Having more than one partner could only mean the gorillan queen has evolved into something else entirely.. Something no one has ever faced and lived to tell the tale."